Just over six months after filmmaker Drew Dickler ’08 visited GFS to film “Big Bass,” a short memoir-documentary, she returned to campus as the featured speaker of the 20th annual Alumni Speaker Assembly.

This speaker series was founded in 2004 to highlight GFS graduates who are making a deep impact around the world, and invites them to share their time and expertise with current students. The audience at this year’s assembly, which was held on Friday, December 6 in the Taulane Auditorium in the Loeb Performing Arts Center, included Upper School students, faculty, and staff, as well as a number of alumni and Dickler’s family and friends.  

Head of School Dana Weeks opened the assembly, and Campbell McCormack ’25, co-leader of the GFS Sexuality and Gender Alliance and an active community member, introduced Dickler. They presented a brief bio of Dickler, including a few of the films, like “Fireboys,” she has produced through her Brooklyn-based production company, Deep Dive Films. They also outlined the premise of “Big Bass:” a dream-like memory from the second grade that centers around her queer identity; her P.E. teacher, Cheryl Bruttomesso; and a mysterious plastic fish.

Dickler then took the stage and shared that her interest in filmmaking began at GFS. 

“I actually made my first movie here, actually right in this building, in what used to be Anne Gerbner’s English classroom,” she remembered. “I carried that GFS foundation with me as I went into my career.”

Dickler spoke about the specific memory that served as the foundational narrative of the film. 

“This is a personal narrative that focuses on my time at GFS and my connection with Cheryl. Spoiler alert: this short discusses both my own and Cheryl's experience growing up as gay women in different eras,” she said. “I wanted a chance to explore my own life through documentary film, a medium I love to work in.”   

In recalling the process of shooting “Big Bass” on-location at GFS, Dickler thanked Bruttomesso for her willingness to be part of the film, and GFS film teacher André Robert Lee ’89, who advised Dickler throughout the project, and ultimately became an executive producer of the film.

This was the first audience to ever see the film, and Dickler acknowledged the occasion with the reflection that, “This is when the film stops being mine, and starts being for all of you.” 

Once the 14-minute film concluded, Dicker and Bruttomesso fielded questions from Ryan Stumacher ’25 and Albert Yao ’25, co-organizers of the Philadelphia Youth Film Festival (coming up on Saturday, February 22, 2025). The questions, some of which were submitted by audience members, touched on topics like building trust with documentary subjects and how to earn sustainable income as a filmmaker. 

After the event, Dickler said she was thrilled to have been able to screen “Big Bass” at her alma mater. 

“I was grateful to the students [in the audience] for being such a present, engaged audience,” she noted. “It was so cool to be able to share my work with them.”